


Truth Matters

by katikat



Category: Crush (2013)
Genre: F/M, Past Sexual Assault, Victim Blaming
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-19
Updated: 2018-05-19
Packaged: 2019-05-08 22:55:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14704173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katikat/pseuds/katikat
Summary: It’s a scary, terrifying thing when you’re not believed. (Unbeta'd)





	Truth Matters

Scott’s lying on his bed, one arm thrown over his eyes. He’s exhausted, aching and upset, unhappy and  _angry_. And that’s when he hears the soft knock on his bedroom’s door.

He peeks out from underneath his arm, expecting it to be his father, there in the open door - he tried to convince Scott earlier to eat something, Scott lost all his appetite after the sheriff’s visit, though - but it’s not his dad. It’s  _Jules_.

“Jules?” Scott asks, surprised, and drops his arm to look at her properly. “What are you doing here?” Not that he isn’t happy to see her -  _always_! - but it’s almost nine on a school night.

She smiles a little awkwardly and steps inside his bedroom, pointing over her shoulder with her thumb. “Your dad called me. He thought you might want to talk? To someone that’s not him?”

That startles Scott even more. But it also pleases him, a  _lot_. If anything good came out of this mess, it’s this renewed closeness with his dad. He didn’t truly realize before just how much he missed it. How alone he felt with his father always so intentionally busy.

“Oh,” he says, then he reaches out towards her with a small smile, inviting her closer.

Jules complies, and taking his hand in hers, she carefully slips onto the bed to snuggle up against him. Before, she used to run up to him and jump in eagerly, intentionally bouncing him. Not anymore. Now she’s extra carefully of his hurt - and still  _hurting_ \- leg.

“So, what’s going on?” she asks him softly, head resting on his chest.

Right.  _That_. Sighing, Scott looks up, fixing his eyes on the ceiling. “The sheriff was here today,” he replies just as softly, “to inform us of what’s going on with the investigation, what’s happening with Andie and so on.”

When he falls silent, Jules nods encouragingly.

“He told us that–” Scott cuts himself off because he feels sick to the stomach just thinking about it, let alone saying it loud. “He told us that Andie’s lawyer, he plans on pleading not guilty on all charges, Jules.” 

She props herself up on her elbow and stares down at him in shocked disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?”

“I wish,” Scott replies, shaking his head. “From what I got, he wants to turn it all on  _me_ , Jules. He-he blames  _me_! He says that I-that  _I_ went to  _her_ house, that…” He takes a shuddery breath. “How much more likely is it that  _I_ did something to  _her_ and she just freaked out and  _defended_ herself? He says-he… he says that everything that followed, that it must’ve been  _my own fault_ , because-because… I’m a  _guy,_  an  _athlete_ , and she’s-she’s just a  _shop assistant_!” 

His voice breaking, Scott turns to her, almost frantic in his need to make  _her_ believe him. “But it happened, Jules. I’m not making this up, I’m  _not lying_ , I’m not, I swear! I swear I tried to get away, I did, but she knocked me out, she drugged me. I swear–”

“Hey,” Jules cuts him off, resting her free hand on his cheek gently.

He didn’t even realize he started hyperventilating as everything came crashing down around him, as all the memories came alive again in his mind, memories of helplessness and pain and  _dread_ so deep it stole his breath.

Because that man, Andie’s lawyer, he claims that everything Scott went through, everything he suffered, was a lie, that-that things like  _that_ simply don’t happen to  _men_ , especially not at the hands of  _women_. And Scott, maybe he started believing it a little, too. Maybe he started doubting himself, thinking he  _had_ done something to bring it all on himself, after all. Maybe-maybe he could’ve fought harder, done more. Maybe–

Jules must see those thoughts, his self-doubts and self-recrimination reflected in his eyes, because she leans closer and kisses him on the forehead gently, her lips lingering on his skin, and when she pulls back, she strokes his cheek lightly, saying, “Scott, you didn’t do  _anything_ wrong. What happened,  _nothing_ was your fault, you hear me? It was all her.  _All. Her_.”

And Scott knows that, of course,  _rationally_ , he knows that. He  _remembers_. He was there. He lived through that fear. But the lawyer’s claims, they’re like worms, slithering and squirming, digging deeper and deeper, weakening his confidence.

She kisses him on the nose, then on one cheek and then the other, before she rests her forehead against his and whispers against his lips, “Scott, you’re the sweetest, most  _stupidly honest_ guy I’ve ever met. Don’t let some-some macho sleaze-ball skew what you  _know_ is the truth. You” –she taps him on the chest with her finger– “are the  _victim_ here. But you’re also the  _hero_ who escaped the monster in the basement. That’s you,  _all you_.”

Catching her hand in his, Scott squeezes it gently, smiling a little. “Why does everything sound so…  _natural_ and-and  _self-evident_ , coming for you?” he teases her a little. But he also means it. Listening to Jules, all he can think is,  _of course it’s so, of course._

She shrugs. “‘Cause I’m awesome and brilliant and you would be totally lost without me.”

Scott lifts her hand to his lips and kisses it. “I would, you know?”

Jules blushes a little and clears her throat. “Well, don’t forget it, then. You’ll always have me in your corner, Scott, as long as you want me. As a girlfriend - or just a friend. And if you want me to kick that idiot of a lawyer in the balls for you, I will.”

Laughing, Scott shakes his head. “I would rather you didn’t.”

“If you insist,” Jules says loftily, but then she sobers up again and looks down at him fiercely. “But try not to worry, okay? Everything’s going to be be alright. you’ll see. Andie will pay for what she did. She  _will_ pay.”

And Scott nods, trying very hard to follow her advice.

Still, when two days later Mrs. Brown wakes up and Andie’s lawyer can’t twist  _her_ testimony into something else, like he did with Scott’s, when Andie’s locked away, when she’s finally gone from his life, hopefully once and for all… it’s not until then that Scott truly allows himself to believe that it’s all over.

The deep hurt and accompanying fear caused by not being believed, by being dismissed, lingers for a long, long time, though.


End file.
